&nbsp&nbsp&nbsp&nbspInsight from InfoTrends

Over the past couple of days here at FESPA 2013 we’ve had a great opportunity to get a glimpse at the future of industrial printing. Many times Tim and I were approached by customers and vendors alike the industrial printing topic is top of mind. However producers as well as vendors define industrial printing in ways that center on applications their products produce. Some consider packaging, laminates, textiles, and others ceramic tiles as industrial applications. But let me offer another perspective, an industrial application is one where a transition from short run custom printing for pilot projects, or prototypes is converted to a manufacturing process that integrates management, workflow, and an integrated digital printing solution that is used for full production runs. Read more »

According to the recently published InfoTrendsÂ forecast onÂ Managed Print Services, theÂ worldwide market will continue to grow at a 6.7% compound annual growth rate from 2012-2017 from approximately $20 billion to $28 billion US dollars.

Certain geographic markets are trending to grow at double digit CAGR such as Latin America, Asia Pacific and Central/Eastern Europe however each of the major countries in each of these markets are growing at significantly different rates.

Yesterday we went through some of the highlights from the first day of the FESPA event at the Excel Center here in London. Over the past couple of days we’ve gotten a flurry of other announcements and other new printer information that we’ll be adding to our new Ultimate Guide to Wide Format. Some of the major announcements are highlighted quickly below:

In June 2011, Lytro unveiled a revolutionary camera that tossed much of what we knew about depth-of-field out the window. Using a new “light field” sensor, the camera captures color, intensity, and direction of light rays in its field of view. The result is pictures that can be “refocused” at any time after capture.

Two years later, Lytro’s current cameras include several features that were not available at launch. Read more »

Bill Taylor, co-founder of Fast Company magazine, knows a lot about innovative companies and how they operate. Here are a few of my favorite Bill Taylor lines:

The only sustainable form of business leadership is thought leadership

It’s not good enough to be pretty good at everything. The middle of the road is the road to nowhere.

Originality is the acid test of your strategy

Bill’s one-liners fit the definition of an aphorism rather nicely. (An aphorism is ‘a brief statement of a principle.’) And though I like a good aphorism, I like Bill’s view on innovative companies even more. Like the dialysis provider, DaVita, that let its employees vote on the new company name. (DaVita used to be called Total Renal Care.) Or Lexus, which built a brand new luxury brand to compete with the Cadillacs and BMWs of the world. Or Cirque du Soleil, which reinvented what a circus could be (without animals or big name acts).

On June 19, 2013, Antalis, the leading European paper merchant, announced a binding offer to acquire Xerox’s paper and print media products business in Western Europe covering the major 16 countries. This follows shortly after the announcement in March this yearÂ that U.S. paper mill Domtar was to purchase Xerox’s North American paper business. This deal has now successfully completed. Whilst the announcement for Europe was perhaps inevitable following the North American acquisition in March this year, it had been suggested to Infotrends, Â by European Xerox sources, that the two businesses were separate and that it was not expected to follow on imminently in Europe.Â From Xerox’s perspective, this deal should however, enable the company to move on and focus on being a provider of business document services and technologies, without the ins and outsÂ of running a substrate distribution company,Â which is its intention.

According to Infotrends’ recent analysis Â the cut size market Â in Western European countries has reached maturity and so a business such as Xerox’s would be striving to adapt its product range within the context of a declining market.

W European Cut Size Paper Demand (Tonnes k) by Grade 2009-2012

On the other hand, Antalis, whose business is dedicated to substrate distribution, Â will adopt exclusively, a very well known brand in both the officeÂ and the professional print markets. Xerox’s range ( though not manufactured by Xerox itself) covers the spectrum of office papers from the basic ‘C’ gradeÂ office paperÂ through to A++ super-calendared papers suited particularly well to production colour toner technology. In addition the range is highly fragmented with coated silks and gloss papers as well as recycled grades, Â carbonless forms , other specialist forms and labels Â used in a variety of applications.

The brand is renowned in Europe rating year in, year out, as the most recognized brand in the Opticom survey of 4500 office users and this was confirmed in a more recent Infotrends study focusing on production colour printing paper type.

Antalis itself believes the deal will enable the company to double its volume into these markets , bring new sales networks, strengthen and improve its financial position as well as bring new skills into the group that should help to enhance efficiency and improve overall profitability. The European Xerox paper businessÂ represents a market volume of Â around 280,000 tonnes of paper worth in excess of Euros 300 million.

The reason(s) why Xerox has decided to sell off its established paper businesses still remains unclear Â but we believe that it is most likely that Xerox concluded that further growth in market share was unlikely, and that its bottom-line return would be sustained or even improved by shifting all the sales and distribution costs to an established channel player while retaining a volume-based licensing or royalty fee. The financial aspects of the deal are however, Â as yet undisclosed and will likely remain so at least until theÂ deal in Europe is sealed. The acquisition, which is subject to EU approval and employee consultation, is expected to be confirmed in the 4th quarter of 2013. Antalis is owned by global paper supplier Sequana that also owns the European paper mill Arjo Wiggins.

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The big tennis tournament Wimbledon is on here in London this week, and it is also FESPA (Federation of European Screen Printing Associations), which every year is one of the biggest events on the global wide format signage and graphics industry calendars. This year FESPA is being held at the London EXCEL center and I’m particularly excited about FESPA because InfoTrends is a research partner of the FESPA organization and we have, once again, developed a very strong body of new industry research called The Worldwide Survey 4. This study takes the temperature of the signage and graphics markets in a number of ways including issues such as buying expectations and technology investment plans. Read more »

Stratasys, one of the largest 3D printer vendors, has acquired Brooklyn, NY based 3D print vendor MakerBot. This acquisition is a defining moment for the 3D printing industry, not only because it brings together two system vendors, but also because of the value of MakerBot’s Thingiverse.com online community.

Samsung’s 2013 National Dealer Meeting (U.S.) was held June 17th-19th at the JW Marriott in downtown Chicago. The show brought together roughly 70 dealers from around the country.Â The theme of the event was “Game On.” According to Tod Pike, Senior Vice President, Samsung Electronics America, 2012 was all about infrastructure growth, new product launches, and recruitment of salespeople, whereas 2013 represents the company’s commitment to growing the business through dealer and partner initiatives. Furthermore, Pike announced a new B2B website that will be organized by vertical (industry), as well as a new executive center in Ridgefield Park, New Jersey for the dealer community. In addition, a new printer ad campaign was shown focusing on key verticals and “interoperability” that will air in July.Â Interoperability was a key theme throughout the event, with Samsung highlighting the leverage it can offer the dealer community with its successful (and broad) portfolio of products and solutions outside the printer/MFP market.

During the general session, Tim Baxter, Samsung Electronics America President, spoke to the dealer community about Samsung’s strength and global vision. According to Baxter, four ingredients make up Samsung’s success: R&D, design, supply chain and brand building. In 2012, Samsung spentÂ approximately $11 billion in research and development, and ranked #2 in top patent holders in the U.S. with 5,000 patents a year. By 2020, Samsung is aiming to achieve $400 billion in revenue in the U.S. market, and be a top ten multinational company.

Vertical Market Sessions

In addition to the general session, Samsung provided the dealers with four breakout sessions focusing on retail, education, healthcare, and best practices in managed print services. The sessions focused on the interoperability of Samsung’s devices across the vertical spectrum and how its products and solutions fit into those environments.Â For example, within the retail arena Samsung demonstrated its new “tap and print” mobile print app, which supports NFC, (Near Field Communication)–a high frequency wireless communication technology that allows devices such as smart phones to collect or transmit data to another NFC-enabled device without manual configuration to identify devices.Â According to Samsung, its first NFC-enabled printers will be available in July.

Within the healthcare session, Samsung highlighted its current presence within this market by discussing its ultrasound, CT Scan, X-ray, and MRI product lines. The company also emphasized three trends within the healthcare market addressed by the products: virtual print, mobile, and workflow efficiency, using optical character recognition (OCR) scanning and digital forms for signage, storage and capture. While Samsung doesn’t expect many dealers to be focusing on their X-ray and MRI products, they believe their “brand” within this vertical offers a competitive advantage.

During the education sector, Samsung demonstrated the mobile print, cloud printing, and “smart” workflow capabilities provided by Samsung School, a program focused around three central systems to assist teachers: interactive management, learning management, and student information. The program incorporates Samsung Galaxy Note 10.1 tablets, an interactive whiteboard display, and multifunction printers. According to Samsung, these three components create a more integrated and engaging digital learning environment that’s easy to manage and gives teachers more time to teach.

It seems like Samsung’s message of interoperability resonated with many of the dealers InfoTrends spoke with as they took a closer look at Samsung throughout the three-day event.

A detailed overview of Samsung Electronics’ printing business will be available shortly through our InfoTrends Digital Peripherals Solutions Consulting Services, and our company store/.